Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

This is a pretty good deal. Same tent I have, tons of room for 1 and plenty for me and my fiancé. On clearance.
http://m.rei.com/product/845481/rei-half-dome-2-plus-tent

 

The REI half dome series of tents are great. I have one that 6 or 7 years old and still in great shape. Doesnt get used to much anymore though but still a great tent. I have the three person version i believe

 

Does anyone use sesame snaps as a trail food?
I had some sesame seeds so I decided to make my own because Louck's are freaking expensive. I can see them being a good trail snack with their sugar and fat and protein. They're pretty light, too.

 

Hey guys, got a quick question that need some help/direction with. Within the next couple months I will be racing dirt bikes a couple weekends every few months. I'm leaning towards purchasing a tent and just camping at the track to save some money. Do you guys have any suggestions as far as what to look for. Just need something that will fit 2 people/reliable/durable (wish I could afford a roof top tent, but college takes priorities)

 

I found this sesame snap recipe, which is pretty similar to Louck's.
From what I could find online Louck's are about 150 calories per ounce.
They might get a little sticky in the heat, though, since they're basically candy. I'll bring some on our trip.

 

if you are not going to carry it on your back, than just get something from Walmart or Costco - cheap and it will do the job. Will not last for too long, but for one trip - for sure. Also get self-inflated sleeping mat, your back will thank you.

If you are looking for something more serious look at REI, MSR or Big Agness tents. MSR (in my opinion) is the best quality out of those. Hubba-Hubba for example. All three brands can be purchased either at REI or directly from their websites.

Also check backcountry.com or campsaver.com - they have decent sales from time to time.

Cheers.

 

For what you're looking to do I'd either pick up that rei tent posted above or go to any campong store or even walmart and buy whatever size tent you like. Unless you want to start backpacking or using the tent where you need a stronger/lighter one.

 

Id buy one of the Wal-Mart tents. One of the large ones. Wont be the best quality but itll work just fine. Id go with something like a 6 person size so you have plenty of room for a nice air mattress and also room to store your riding gear and other stuff.

Don't think you really need ot look for anything specific other than large enough to be comfortable

 

I had a Wenzel brand 3 room tent that was 18x10 and it lasted me a decade before I passed it on to a family who had never camped, had no equipment. If you're not out in rain or wind, an inexpensive tent is fine. Even for light weather a couple guy lines should help. I'd buy a cheap tent with aluminum poles that fit my gear and myself and call it good, and I'd get as much room as I can if I'm not carrying it on my back. You could have a fair weather palace for $100.

 

Just got my permits FINALLY to hike a section of the John Muir trail this August. We've been planning it for a while and knew permits were tough to come by, especially with new restrictions exiting Yosemite over Donohue Pass. Well, we don't get to start at the very northern end of the trail, but we're doing a 35 mile section starting at Toloumne Meadow and ending at Devil's Postpile. My wife wanted to see the Ansel Adams wilderness, so this lets us see it all. We're just going to do 7 miles per day so we can relax for half the day and so I can fish. Our goal isn't to race this trail, but to enjoy it for 5 days and be away from the world a bit.

We already have our hotel reservations for each end of the trip, and all of the shuttle logistics figured out for our first and last day on the trail. It's a 9 hour drive from Phoenix, so we'll just take my truck and not have to worry about shuttles from airports or anything like that. Plus we'll have a vehicle to explore Mammoth Lakes before and after the trip. Can't wait!

 

I hope a camera is on the gear list.

 

Oh yeah, and a backup to that.

 

I have a The North Face Tadpole 23 and it handled 24" of snow over 2 days like a champ about 3 weeks ago.

You are right about knocking the snow off the top. The most I had on the top at one time was about 6"

 

That's Awesome! Hope you two have an incredible time out there. The Eastern Sierra range is just Amazing!!

 

Knocking the snow off is really key for any tent...even 4 season ones. I accidently had 12" or so of snow fall when using my rei half dome. It held up fine but I only was letting 1-2" before knocking it off.

Its wind that really makes you appreciate a 4 season tent. Hi winds blowing snow is killer for a 3 season tent but not as bad in a 4 season.

 

Snow camping, that's what I'm talking bout. Sweet

 

Just picked up a Garmin GPSMAP 64ST in prep for a western hunt in May. Anyone love/hate the Garmins?

 

I love my Garmin eTrex Legend! Even with its monochrome, non touch screen. The trip computer in It is uncanny! Always dead on. I also use it as a speedometer at night on long trips, keeps my eyes on the road

 

Was on biz travel in SLC, and had some time to burn so I hit up the closest REI. Found a tan Marmot Traveler rain jacket in the clearance rack, which was exactly the type of rain jacket style I wanted for hiking/summer use or in cooler weather with layers underneath. $200 retail jacket, the color I wanted, and in my size on clearance for $44. I thought it was mislabeled. Looked it over, and the only flaw was some tar-like smudge on the left sleeve cuff which was coming off with a fingernail. Took it to the register, confirmed the $44 price, and swooped on that as fast as I could pull my wallet out of my pocket. I brought it home, and with a little soapy water and my kitchen scrubby sponge, got all of that residue off and it is like brand new. Every zipper and thread is in perfect shape. I'm a happy camper.

http://marmot.com/products/details/traveler-jacket

Nice fit, removable hood, fleece-lined pockets, light weight, and has those rubberized zipper edges. This thing is going in my bug-out gear and with me to Yosemite.

 

I've been a Garmin guy for years, and still use their platform in my Kenwood DVD player in my truck.

After researching handhelds for hiking, I ended up getting a DeLorme PN-60w unit. I didn't need the SPOT system, but I got it anyways just in case I wanted it later. Man, is this thing a great unit. The screen is fantastic, functions are a bit to figure out at first but with a little common sense you can use it without the limited instructions. But the big hook for me was the software. I'm blown away with how detailed it is. There are zero instructions for how to use it, but with a few forum reads and some trial and error, I've never used a more useful GPS software that syncs so cleanly to the unit. Comes with a free year of downloads for up to 30cm resolution satellite imagery. Comes with the full North America topos, even broken up by region for even more detail. It has 3D rendering like Google Earth, or you can overlay layers of topo over satellite imagery. The only downside are that the map downloads take a long time (based on their server upload strength, not my download speeds). 250MB files take about 2 hours to download, but they're worth the wait. Most of my downloads are in the 100MB range, some up to 500MB if I'm grabbing a huge area (100+ square miles).

It's a beefy unit, but built like a tank. Rubberized backing, tough buttons. I will say that it is a battery whore on rechargeables, but with Lithiums it runs much longer. When I'm recording a track, I have it mark a waypoint every 10', so it is using more battery than I probably need it to. I can set it to mark waypoints at much larger distances apart, but I like the accuracy and true track length I get on the 10' setting.

I've put this thing through the wringer for almost 2 years now, and I am not looking back. Super easy to mark waypoints with fancy icons, and all of that stuff translates to Google maps icons, tracks, etc. Very easy to spot something on Google, save it as a map, upload the file to the DeLorme software, and put it on GPS. Same with the reverse process. Split screen software allows me to zoom in on one screen, and keep the other side zoomed out for a better idea of a specific area. Switch one screen to satellite view, the other to topo, etc. etc. The draw functions for making my own trails/roads is very detailed, with limitless included icons, track colors/sizes, ability to create your own roads/highways/train tracks. I can go on and on.

Track profiling on this thing is great. Shows a very detailed chart of all elevation points across time and/or distance. Run the slider across the graph, and in the screens above, it shows where exactly on the map you were.

What else am I forgetting? Probably 100 things.